Fonepay With Yet Another Digital Payment Milestone In Nepal - Offline Payments

At the vanguard of the digital payment periphery of Nepal, Fonepay is a disruptor of the tech industry of the country. From integrating mobile banking systems to availing a revolutionary QR code system in 2019, the brand is driving the phenomenon of Digital Nepal. Yet another milestone in its advent is the offline digital payment solution to common problems of the average Nepalese. With the newly launched Fonetag (Fonepay Tap & Go) and Customer Presented QR (CPQR), Fonepay is eliminating the need to access the internet network for digital payments.

Why Offline Payments?

QR technology has experienced massive growth since its inception in Nepal. Apart from the Himalayan Bank, Fonepay has integrated QR payments with all of the commercial banks and some development banks as well via mobile banking service. With such massive usage, technical problems are known to surface at times. Particularly in areas where there is an absence of wifi or poor data connection due to low network coverage, relying on online payment can put you in a pickle. Moreover, there have been instances where customers send the money but the recipient fails to receive the amount due to communication errors between banks and Fonepay. Ergo, offline payment has been devised to address the aforementioned problems and offer a seamless experience to users.

Modus Operandi

While the talk of the town is that Fonepay has introduced a complete offline payment system in Nepal, people need to be aware that the merchant or recipient has to be online. In the traditional QR system, customers had to scan the merchant's QR but through Fonetag and CPQR, the merchant digitally requests the bank to withdraw an amount from the sender's account. Here, the recipient can ensure the completion of the transaction easily via Fonepay Business app, providing visibility over the transaction. This is comparatively more reliable than traditional digital payment systems since the merchant had to rely on SMS messages, which are often disrupted by network errors, to ensure completion. 

Put simply, the offline payment system works in the following way:

1) Log in to the Fonepay App
2) Link your bank account
3) Activate Offline Payment
4) Go back to the login screen. Find 'Offline Payments' and tap on it. Choose your preferred method i.e. either NFC or CPQR.
5) Hold your phone close to the recipient or merchant's phone or POS machine.
6) If you have no NFC feature, generate your CPQR which will be scanned by the merchant or recipient.

Here, it is important to know that Apple does not distribute NFC-enable iPhones in the South Asian region. Also, some older versions of android phones do not have an NFC feature in them. Being mindful of that, Fonepay has launched the CPQR feature which generates a dynamic QR to eliminate any chances of misuse. 

Sagar Paudel, Product Head of the Fonepay App, believes that "Offline payment technology is a new advent in Nepal's digital payment periphery. Considering Fonepay's retrospective success in executing digital payment solutions in Nepal, the offline payment feature is also expected to prosper and ease the lives of the Nepalese". He also adds that "Fonetag and CPQR systems are very cost-effective as there is no compulsion to use a POS machine to receive payments; a simple working smartphone will do." However, the major challenge for Fonepay is to aware the customers and merchants about this technology and gain their trust. Towards this, Fonepay will soon launch its Fonetag and CPQR services in supermarkets like Bhatbhateni.